Average Funeral Cost

The honest numbers

The most reliable national figures come from the National Funeral Directors Association's 2023 General Price List study, the most recent one published. The median cost of an adult funeral with a viewing and burial was $8,300. Add a burial vault, which many cemeteries require, and the median rises to $9,995. A funeral with a viewing followed by cremation had a median of $6,280, a figure that includes the cremation fee, an alternative cremation container, and an urn.

It matters just as much to know what the burial median does not include. By NFDA's own definition, the $8,300 covers the funeral home's basic services fee, transfer of the body, embalming and other preparation, a metal casket, the use of facilities and staff for the viewing and the ceremony, a hearse, a service car, and a printed memorial package. It excludes the cemetery plot, the interment or opening of the grave, the monument or marker, and cash advance items such as flowers and the obituary. Those can add thousands more, and they are the part most families do not see coming.

The least expensive common path is direct cremation, meaning cremation without a viewing or ceremony beforehand. The most recent NFDA medians for that are from its 2021 study, since the 2023 release did not publish this line. In 2021 the median was $2,455 if the family provided the container and $2,550 if the funeral home did.

The itemized table

These are the 2023 NFDA national medians for each line you will see on a funeral home's General Price List. A median means half of funeral homes charged less and half charged more, so treat each figure as a fair midpoint, not a ceiling or a floor.

One honest footnote on the first line. The NFDA's own 2023 press release PDF prints the basic services fee as $2,459 in its burial table and $2,495 in its cremation table, for the same item, both marked as an 8.5 percent increase over the 2021 figure of $2,300. Since $2,300 increased by 8.5 percent is $2,495.50, and since published reproductions of the table use $2,495, we use $2,495 here and note the discrepancy rather than hiding it.

NFDA national medians, 2023

• Nondeclinable basic services fee, $2,495
• Removal and transfer of the body to the funeral home, $395
• Embalming, $845
• Other preparation of the body, $295
• Use of facilities and staff for a viewing, $475
• Use of facilities and staff for the funeral ceremony, $550
• Hearse, $375
• Service car or van, $175
• Basic memorial printed package, $195
• Metal burial casket, $2,500
• Vault, $1,695
• Third party cremation fee, $400
• Alternative cremation container, $160
• Urn, $295

Why the range is so wide

Where you live changes the number. NFDA publishes medians by census division, and in 2023 the spread ran from $8,985 for a funeral with viewing and burial in New England down to $7,390 in the Mountain states. The same pattern holds for cremation. No credible source publishes true state by state medians, so be wary of pages that claim to.

The single biggest swing item is the casket. The $2,500 median for a metal casket sits in the middle of a market that runs from simple models costing a few hundred dollars to designs costing many thousands, and the casket is often chosen in the hardest hour, in a showroom, by someone who has not slept. It is the one line where a calm decision saves the most.

The other quiet driver is packages. Bundled packages can be convenient, but they can also carry items you never would have chosen one by one. Federal law gives you the right to buy each item separately, which is why the itemized list above is worth carrying with you.

Your rights when you walk in

The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule protects you in every funeral home in the country. These rights are not favors. They are the law, and it is easier to use them when you know them before you walk in.

What the FTC Funeral Rule guarantees

• You must be given a written, itemized General Price List that is yours to keep, showing every item and service with its cost.
• Funeral homes must give you prices over the phone if you ask, and you do not have to give your name, address, or phone number first.
• You can buy goods and services separately. You do not have to accept a package that includes things you do not want. The only fee that cannot be declined is the basic services fee, plus anything a specific law requires.
• Embalming is not required by federal law, and the price list must say so right beside the embalming price. A funeral home may not charge for embalming without permission.
• You may buy a casket or urn somewhere else. The funeral home cannot refuse to handle it, cannot charge a handling fee, and cannot require you to be there when it is delivered.
• No state or local law requires a casket for cremation. A funeral home that offers cremation must tell you that alternative containers are available and must make them available.
• You have the right to see a written casket price list before you are shown any caskets, and a written price list for outer burial containers. No state law requires an outer burial container, though many cemeteries do.
• Before you pay, you must receive a written statement listing everything you selected, each price, and the total, along with an explanation of any legal, cemetery, or crematory requirement behind a purchase.
• One caveat worth knowing. The Rule does not cover third party casket or monument sellers, or cemeteries that have no funeral home on site.

A yearly promise

The figures on this page are the latest published national medians, from the NFDA's 2023 General Price List study, which remains the current study as of August 2026. When NFDA publishes new medians, this page will be updated to carry them. If the numbers here ever fall out of date, that is a mistake, not a policy, and we want to hear about it.